Tag: LGBT Politics

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/on-our-radar-out-on-the-street-lgbt-friends-in-high-places/politics/2012/04/29/38665

Out On The Street may be the most important LGBT professional organization you have never heard of. This week they hold their second annual summit. Why that gathering could mean good news for the gay agenda, is On Our Radar.

Someday, someone will write a book recounting the behind-the-scenes intrigue in 2011, as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo maneuvered to get a marriage equality bill passed by the same state senators who had rejected it in 2009. Governor Cuomo may not be gay, but he will forever be a hero in gay history.

The governor began by learning as much as he could about each and every senator who had voted “no” the first time around. He knew which senator had a wife with a beloved gay relative. Which senator might be receptive to the personal stories of gay couples who longed to marry. Which senator would base his decision solely on the level of response he received from his own constituents, and which one only considered the statewide polls. Governor Cuomo is said to have watched and rewatched videotape of the first unsuccessful vote on marriage equality, studying the facial expressions of the “no” votes to see which members looked unhappy or not decisive when they cast it, and then reached out to form personal relationships with them. There were dozens of phone calls, meetings at his office and meals at the governor’s mansion. “I am more of an asset than the vote will be a liability.” He told the senators. “I will help you.”

Next, Cuomo persuaded the same-sex marriage advocates to change their tactics. During the first vote, when Cuomo was serving as Attorney General, there had been five different advocacy groups, all giving him contradictory advice on whom to lobby and what tack to take. Cuomo united them into a single group with a new name, New Yorkers United For Marriage, and a new hand-picked leader, Jennifer Cunningham, while promising to remain personally involved in directing their efforts.

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20120429/NEWS06/304290030/springfield-city-council-human-rights-council-gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender-rights

Given a choice, Josh Castillo would prefer his life to be considered unremarkable.

“I’m a fairly average guy. I live in a middle-class neighborhood, I have a mortgage, a son … I run and go fishing,” said Castillo, a hospital social worker. “If I didn’t tell you I was transgendered, you wouldn’t know.”

Castillo, 40, was born female. As a woman Castillo served in the military, married, had a child and divorced. He transitioned to living as a man about five years ago, went through sex reassignment surgery and changed his name.

“I was fortunate because I did pass very easily” after starting hormone treatment, Castillo said. Even so, “there was a long period of time when I wouldn’t use a public bathroom at all … (out of fear) that someone’s gonna say, ‘You’re not supposed to be here.’”

Restrooms — and determining who uses which ones — have been a focal point of discussion as City Council considers adding protections for transgendered residents to the city’s non-discrimination ordinances.

The changes, endorsed by the Mayor’s Commission on Human Rights and Community Relations, would make it illegal to deny someone a job, housing or public services based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

State and federal law don’t explicitly offer such protection, supporters say, although recent policy changes and legal interpretations at the federal level are heading in that direction.

An April 20 opinion from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, for example, ruled that discrimination based on a person’s transgender status runs afoul of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on sex.

Supporters say more comprehensive protection is needed.

“I don’t want special treatment because I’m transgendered … but it’s not OK to fire me just for that,” Castillo said. “I’m not a second-class citizen.”

2012 proving busy year for Victory Fund

It’s been a busy month for Victory Fund President Chuck Wolfe.

The organization raised more than $450,000 in a D.C. fundraiser, helped elect Pennsylvania’s first openly gay state legislator and announced that South Dakota has its first out public official.

“Angie, I think she’s been thinking about it for a while, and then she was finally ready to come out — she used our Coming Out Project to assist her, counsel her, guide her through that,” Wolfe told the Blade, referring to newly out, bisexual state Sen. Angie Buhl. “I think being a coach to our candidates is probably one of the things that people know the least about what we do. They know we endorse candidates and they know that we make contributions to candidates, but the time spent coaching candidates, helping them hire a team around them, helping them design their mailings and their field plans is a lot of what we do. And that also includes helping people in the closet come out.”

Buhl is the latest LGBT official to be listed as out on Victory Fund’s site. She joins openly gay lawmakers recently identified in North Dakota, Kansas, Mississippi and West Virginia. The group says it has, for the first time, identified openly LGBT elected officials in all 50 states, and has listed the names of openly LGBT officials in 49, saying that it has also identified a local official in Alaska whose name will be made public soon.

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/1-will-pennsylvania-elect-six-out-lgbt-freshman-legislators-in-november/politics/2012/04/05/37445

Here in Pennsylvania, where we have rapidly fallen behind neighboring states New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware in recent years when it comes it LGBT rights, we have zero out legislators, and zero statewide LGBT civil rights. Equality Pennsylvania has had policy wins such as working with PennDOT to make gender marker changes on driver’s licensees and photo ID’s far less invasive for transgender Pennsylvanians. Equality PA has also played a major role in passing over twenty five local non-discrimination ordinances. But, despite having some wonderful allies in Harrisburg, our best chance to finally achieve state-wide LGBT civil rights will come from electing out candidates. We have not one or two, but six chances to do that this year. In 2013, Pennsylvania could have six out, proud, qualified Representatives in our state House.

All six out candidates (that I’m currently aware of via various endorsements) are running as Democrats and all six are running in different districts for the Pennsylvania State House. Three of the candidates face primary challenges on April 24th; the other three are the only Democrats running in their districts and will run against Republicans, incumbent or otherwise, in the November general election. Pennsylvania is the second largest state to have never elected an out legislator, and each of these candidates have received various endorsements, from both LGBT and other organizations, based not on their identities but their values, abilities, and campaign platforms.

Among the six out candidates, four are gay men, all white, and two are lesbian women; one is white and one is a Muslim woman of color. To have even a third of the out candidates be women is almost twice as strong a showing as the current makeup of the Pennsylvania General Assembly (GA). According to the Center for American Women and Politics, Pennsylvania comes in at a lowly 42nd place in the nation for gender parity in legislative bodies, with only 17% of legislators being women. By comparison, Colorado leads the nation with 41%.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/04/26/pennsylvania-set-to-get-its-first-openly-gay-lawmaker/

Pennsylvania is set to get its first openly gay state lawmaker, as a 33 year old is set to win a Democratic State House primary, leaving him with an open path to election this November, unless an independent candidate decides to compete for the seat.

Brian Sims, a lawyer based in Philadelphia, is set to win the primary against his fellow Democratic opponent, Babette Josephs, with 51.6 percent of the vote, reports the Philadelphia Enquirer.

Mr Sims, the son of two military parents and a former football star, served as his opponent’s campaign treasurer when she won re-election in 2010. Ms Josephs, who is 71, has been herself a champion of liberal causes since first being elected to her post in 1984, though that did not stop her from approving strongly-worded leaflets against Mr Sims during the campaign leading up to the election.

In a statement, Mr Sims said: ”It’s because of the work Babette has done over the years that I was able to run and win in a district like this… The campaign was about ideas and who could do the best job going forward, not a referendum on the past 27 years.”

It is possible that he could join the legislature simultaneously with another gay Democrat candidate, Chris Dietz, who is running in the Harrisburg area of the state.

Kyrsten Sinema, a seven-year veteran of the Arizona legislature, is running to become the first openly bisexual member of Congress. She’s part of a bumper crop of LGBT candidates nationwide, including four in Arizona, a state lately infamous for right-wing legislation on abortion and immigration but built on libertarian ideals—and where four out candidates are currently running for office.

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/26/gay-politicians-come-out-in-force-for-2012-races.html

EXCLUSIVE: Baldwin calls for marriage equality plank in Dem platform

U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin has joined the chorus of those calling for an endorsement of marriage equality in the Democratic Party platform, saying the inclusion of such language would be a “statement of values.”

In an exclusive interview with the Washington Blade on Sunday, Baldwin said the inclusion of same-sex marriage in the platform would be “very important.”

“I think that would be tremendous, and we have to be focusing on advancing equality in so many different realms,” Baldwin said. “It’s a statement of values, and I think it’s very important to be included.”

The candidate made the remarks prior to her speech at the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund’s annual brunch at the Washington Hilton.

Baldwin’s support for marriage equality in the platform puts her in the company of nearly two dozen U.S. senators, along with others, including Democratic National Convention chair Antonio Villaraigosa, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren. A former U.S. senator from Wisconsin, Russ Feingold, has also called for the inclusion of the language.

Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, said he “welcomes” Baldwin’s support for a marriage equality plank in the platform.

“Rep. Baldwin, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, joins numerous party leaders and tens of thousands of Democrats who have signed our online petition in speaking up for the Democratic values of freedom, family and inclusion that are the core of the case for the freedom to marry,” Wolfson said.

The platform committee is set to debate platform language when it gathers for the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. DNC officials have declined to say whether the platform will include marriage equality.